teengirl fantasy / actress - Motif (Actress Mix)

Teengirl Fantasy make their long-awaited R&S debut with 'Motif', and it's a corker - taking the American duo's obsession with Virgo/Mr Fingers-style Chicago dream-house, mixing in some of the sci-fi-psychedelic spirit of vintage Detroit techno, and assembling it all with a very liberal, post-hypnagogic approach to structure. It really works, making for music that manages to feel euphoric and deeply melancholy, "free" and disciplined, at the same time. Actress is a natural choice for remix duties - he ruthlessly strips 'Motif' down to its bare bones and darks out what's left; there's a nod to 'Starlight'-era Model 500 but for the most part this is just Darren Cunningham doing his own thing, and showing most of his contemporaries up, as usual. The other Teengirl original, 'Eternal', is floaty, anthemic, new age techno, all spectral chorused synths, trippy Xbox arpeggios and clacking drum fills - one to get lost in.